Odd Man Out (1947)
Director: Carol Reed
Honors:
It would be the first film honored by the newly formed
British Film Academy for best feature from its native country and would leave a
lasting impact on British cinema and filmmakers for years to come. The picture
is a heist, a drama, and a character study based around a sore political topic
in the United Kingdom both before and after World War II. Starring one of the
UK’s brightest stars coming out of the war, James Mason, its cast featured the
likes of Robert Newton and a slew of cinematic newcomers, many who would become
popular names in British cinema in the coming years.
Odd Man Out is a
British noir about an Irish nationalist who is wounded during a heist and must
navigate the darkened streets encountering various people while attempting to evade
the police. Fugitive Johnny McQueen (James Mason) finds himself shot and alone
after a bank heist planned to help fund his controversial Irish nationalist efforts.
While his love, Kathleen Sullivan (Kathleen Ryan), avoids the police inspector
(Dennis O’Dea) and attempts to find her man, the wounded and semi-conscious
Johnny must elude not only the police, the various people that look to cash in
on reward for his capture. After being tended to by reluctantly helpful bystanders,
roaming through abandoned areas of town, and stumbling into a crowded bar,
Johnny is taken by an eccentric painter (Robert Newton) who is inspired by his
plight. Kathleen is able to find Johnny and arranges a way for his escape, but
Johnny is too weak to outpace the police that trail them. In her final act of devotion
she decides to die with the man she loves by inducing police gunfire, claiming
both of their lives.
The film’s plot can be observed as meandering, modestly
about Johnny fading quickly from his wound while roaming the dark evening
streets of the Irish town, meeting people who exit just a quickly as they meet.
However, the true assessment of the film is found in the study of the
characters he encounters and how they view Johnny’s life and value. Johnny
spends most of the picture hurt and barely conscious, adding little to his own
foil, as we feast on the multitude of side characters that he encounters along
his staggering way as they discover who he is. For the most part the various
Irish characters are in favor of what Johnny is fighting for, but due to his
fugitive status they either want nothing to do with him out of fear of trouble,
or want to use him for the reward that is placed on his head.
Coming out of World War II where director Carol Reed served
in the British Army’s film unit, Reed would begin the most successful period of
his career beginning with Odd Man Out.
Reed’s direction in this noir brought tangibility to the feature. Shot on
location in Belfast with a supporting cast consisting of largely of members of Dublin’s
Abbey Theater, most of the picture feels authentic in nature. Its authenticity
was so strong that believed the pub in the picture would pay homage to locations
that merely inspired sets built for the picture. Reed’s use of camera and
shadows brings gritty drama to the film based around the sore subject of Irish
nationalism, an issue the nation was still battling within the country since
before WWII when northern Ireland was annexed into the United Kingdom,
effectively splitting the Irish nation.
Star James Mason loved working on the picture, considering
it his finest performance and his personal favorite of all Carol Reed’s pictures.
At this time Mason was nearing a peak of fame in British cinema before he took
his skills across the ocean to America and becoming an international star.
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| Newton and Mason pictured in a scene on the left |
Apart from notable performances by the ever interesting
Robert Newton, who plays an eccentric painter obsessed with painting Johnny, most
of the supporting cast consisted of cinematic unknowns barrowed from the Abbey
Theater of Dublin, Ireland. Among these newcomers was the leading love interest
in Kathleen Ryan, as well as Joseph Tomelty who appears briefly as a taxi
driver. Ryan would become one of Ireland’s most popular beauties while Tomelty
would go on to have a long and successful career on both the big and small
screens while remaining busy on London stages.
Odd Man Out would
release to great acclaim and strong box office numbers. Aside from being the
eighth highest grossly British feature for 1947, the film was named Best
British Picture by the newly formed British Film Academy, later to be known as
BAFTA, the British equivalent to the Academy Awards. Aside from the impact the film had on its
director and star, future generations would continue to sing the film’s praise.
Filmmaker Roman Polanski most notably would consider Odd Man Out his favorite film.
Today the feature remains as one of the highest heralded
films of British cinema and one of James Mason’s greatest performances. The paramount
result of the picture was the success of Carol Reed who would turn the
accomplishment into a new contract with Alexander Korda’s London Film
Productions, resulting in his future features Fallen Idol (1948) and The
Third Man (1949) which would live on as hist masterpiece.
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